Pages

Friday, March 9, 2012

God and Books...Where's the Connection?

Source: Historic Byways and Highways of Old Englandï¿½ By: William Andrews
Status: Public Domain in the USA*

Hey, Book Bandits--this post is for you! Especially if you're a Christian. As many of you know, I'm taking online classes at Regent University. One of the professors of Language and Literature (Professor Amy Rickards) wrote a cool article that I wanted to share. It reassured me of how important my studies are. I've always wondered how books could possibly be part of my spiritual life; I mean, if I'm reading a book, I'm not reading the Bible, getting work done, or helping anybody out. Have you ever wondered about this? That's what this short article addresses! It takes about 2 minutes to read. Check a pared-down version of it below, or follow the link at the very bottom for the full article, including Professor Rickards' extensive credentials:

Loving the Lord Through
Literature

By Professor Amy
Rickards

...John Wesley, the great preacher and theologian, stated, "Reading
Christians are growing Christians. When Christians cease to read, they cease to
grow," and I believe that his words are a significant exhortation for us as
believers striving to know and love God better.

I realize that not everyone
is a bookworm like I am. During my childhood and adolescent years, I developed
an incredible love for reading. While most parents try and encourage their
child's love of reading, my mom was always saying, "Get your nose out of that
book!" I would try and hide my book under the dinner table so that I could keep
reading even during meals because heaven forbid that I might have to wait to
find out what happened next in the story I was currently enjoying. Despite my
mother's admonitions, she and my father fostered my love of words and reading by
always buying me books and encouraging me to write stories of my own as a child.
Literary scholar Leland Ryken, in his essay "Thinking Christianly About
Literature" writes, "Literature takes reality and human experience as its
starting point, transforms it by means of the imagination, and sends readers
back to life with renewed understanding of it and zest for it because of their
excursions into a purely imaginary realm," and I certainly experienced this
phenomenon in my own life.

Although I grew up reading
and loving books, it wasn't until my sophomore year as an undergraduate that I
really began to understand how significant reading and the study of literature
was to my relationship with Christ and with other believers. The chair of our
Language and Literature department here at Regent, Dr. Susannah Clements, words
this concept beautifully with her statement that, "Literature is a creative
expression of universal human experience, and it has value in the way it can
help us better understand what it means to be human, sinful but still made in
God's image." My love for literature deepened as it became a wonderful way for
me to develop and express my relationship with Christ, and I went on to pursue a
master's degree in English at Virginia Commonwealth University, feeling a
calling from God to share and impart this love of God and literature through
teaching.

Whatever your background
with language and literature, I would encourage you to consider developing your
relationship with the Lord through the study of the written word. I
would love to have the opportunity to work with you! May God bless your study of
language and literature!